When a new prank by Bart and Milhouse gets Milhouse suspended for a week, Bart’s involvement remains undetected. Bart visits Grandpa at the Retirement Castle, but starts chatting with a girl he starts to like instead. However, she is at the Retirement Castle because she is a volunteer there and Bart has to act like he is a good child in order for her to like him back. Meanwhile, Lisa’s class writes about what they think Springfield will look like in 50 years, but Lisa becomes depressed believing it will be a barren wasteland, so she is put on a medicine that makes her a smiling mindless zombie.

Recap

Couch Gag: The living room is covered in thick, jungle plants. The Simpsons slash their way through in order to reach the couch, and find an ape version of the Simpson family already seated. The ape-Simpsons hoot and screech, scaring off the human Simpsons.

Episode Goofs

In the start of the episode, Springfield Elementary School falls together because Milhouse and Bart unscrewed everything. Then, groundskeeper Willie runs outside the school and is hit in the head by the letters in the "Springfield Elementary School" board above the main door. Then he falls and collapses on the ground with three N's shown sideways next to his head, making it look like he's sleeping. However, there are only two N's in "Springfield Elementary School", one in Spri-n-gfield and one in Eleme-n-tary. Where did the extra N come from?

Cultural References

This episode's title is an adaptation of 'The Good the Bad and the Ugly' (aka, 'Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo'), the 1966 Italian spaghetti western starring Clint Eastwood